]]>For the past year or so, I’ve been giving lectures on eating real {halal} food and how to shop for and prepare these foods at weight management workshops sponsored by the Compassionate Care Network.

CCN is a Chicago-based non-profit organization that offers medical care to the uninsured, but also offers additional free services to the local community such as health screenings and these workshops on weigh management.

I really enjoy the workshops because I get to talk about what ingredients to watch out for not just in terms of weight management, but also with regards to overall health. I tell attendees where I get my food items, such as halal cheeses, local organic vegetables and even raw milk if they’re interested to join a co-op and do the same.

There are other guest lecturers at the workshop, physicians who talk about the science behind weigh loss and how to measure things like BMI (body-mass index) and count calories, as well as the type of exercises to incorporate into daily life. Afterwords, we break up into groups and discuss our individual topics. I do a short activity called Eat This, Not That where we discuss alternatives for ingredients that individuals may not know are unhealthy or are simply uninformed as to how to shop for the best types of ingredients for thier family meals.

These workshops are a great service to the community, as are the other services that CCN offers to people. We were able to utilize their services years ago when we were uninsured and it took a lot of pressure off us to know that we could take care of medical issues without the incredible burden of high health care costs. Special thanks to Drs. Azher Quader, M. Gafoor and Ayesha Sultana for founding such a beneficial organization.

If you live in the Chicagoland area and are interested in attending, please contact CCN. We’d love to see you there!

What are your biggest weight-loss challenges and how can we be of help?